


Shoes and Souls

by trippyvulcan



Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-17
Updated: 2013-02-17
Packaged: 2017-11-29 15:49:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/688702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trippyvulcan/pseuds/trippyvulcan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony muses on shoes and connecting with others.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shoes and Souls

**Author's Note:**

> Just a short piece of Tony/Pepper fluff. Unbetaed.

Tony wasn’t very good at letting other people in. Letting people in usually meant getting used or manipulated in ways both small and large. Once it lead to someone planning his death. So, yeah, not so good at emotional connections. The few he had seemed to occur almost by accident. Chief among them was Pepper. He hired her because she was smart. He kept her because she could force him to do the things he really needed to do. He still couldn’t pinpoint the moment that she had become one of the few people he truly cared about. He knew it was before Afghanistan although he didn’t realize it until after he was back.

                He may not remember when Pepper got through his walls but he very clearly remembers the first time he realized that he had gotten through hers. Pepper loves shoes, and her salary has long provided her ample means to indulge that love. He’s seen her in sky-high leboutin stilettos, a variety of couture pumps, sandals that look like they didn’t cost a ton but probably did and on one memorable occasion cross trainers (she’d been using the treadmill in the Malibu house, he’d nearly forgotten there was a gym in there). In all the years he’s known her she’s been incredibly competent, incredibly put together (even on the treadmill) and never without shoes.  So when they started this semi-stable relationship, he’d never actually seen her barefoot which was in distinct contrast to her experience which basically amounted to seeing Tony in anything from Armani to Stark naked (he likes that pun, Pepper just rolls her eyes). So, when they get in late,  _late_ one evening and Pepper pulls off her shoes before joining him on the couch, Tony feels like he’s won the fucking lottery.  Or all the lotteries, one wouldn’t be that much money to him. Anyway, he’s ecstatic because maybe he’s a bit emotionally thick sometimes, but he caught this. Pepper took off her shoes because she wasn’t working anymore. She wasn’t being the super responsible CEO of Stark Industries anymore. She was just being Pepper, and only he got to see it. It was a small act but Tony knew it meant the walls were down. She was trusting him, and would be damned if he ever made her regret it.


End file.
